Family will kill you, one of my good friends likes to say. For the Winchesters, family will kill FOR you, and then family will save you, over and over.

For our comic relief this episode, we get to watch Crowley deal with the minutiae of being King of Hell, along with dispatching sycophants and checking things off of lists. Poor Crowley, all he wants is to be with Dean, as we see him fondly recall their precious few Bro-ments together. Obviously bored out of his skull, Crowley hears that Castiel has a fading grace problem, and heads out into the world, showing up at a random gas station just in time to feed Cas the grace of Adina, the pissed off partner of the angel killed in the season opener. Seems as though Crowley prefers a fully charged Castiel in the world, and so do I. (And I think Hannah’s obvious fondness for Castiel, and what may be hiding under that trench coat will be her downfall sooner rather than later.)

So, the A story is Sam and Dean. Remember when the boys learned how to un-demon a demon and pumped Crowley full of consecrated blood back in season 8? Well, Sammy thinks that will work on Dean, so he nabs a cooler full of the stuff and confronts his brother, who is tied up in the now familiar MoL dungeon.

Dean, snarling and snapping at his brother, referring to ‘The Winchesters’ like he isn’t one of them, says all the hurtful and awful things we feared. Even informing the audience of the shameful things Sam did to save his brother. Sammy, even though he is clearly horrified by seeing Dean like this, keeps on injecting him. Even though DemonDean is clearly in pain, and doing his best to scare the pants off Sam, Sam does a pretty good job holding it together.

Once Dean slips his cuffs and demon trap, due to the massive amounts of blood making him ‘more human’,  we are treated to A Very Winchester Salute to The Shining, with Dean chopping through a door in a rage, so very close to uttering the famous “Here’s Johnny” line that part of me wanted to hear, and part of me hoped they wouldn’t touch. It is wonderful in it’s essence of a Supernatural style tribute, but awful to see Dean hunt his brother through the maze of MoL, a place that once meant safety and quiet for the boys.

Castiel shows up after a particularly close hammer swing, aimed at Sammy’s head (nice reflexes Sammy!), and saves the day by giving Dean a bear hug from behind, newly charged angel powers engaged, and DemonDean is tied up again. One more shot of blood, and Dean finally returns to us. And of course, as much as we want to see the brothers hug, and maybe, just maybe, finally, tell each other how much they love each other, all we get is the relieved face of Sammy fetching his famished brother some food, the genial conversation between Dean and Cas, and the uncertain reaction of Dean realizing that he is human again (and all the horrors he engaged in while demon-ing it up with Crowley).

WHEW.

Of course, Castiel has to jinx the whole thing by saying Dean should take a little time off, because “It’s quiet out there.” DAMMIT CAS!

Cut to some red headed vampire (?) lady who seems to be keeping her meals staked to the ceiling of her salon. Okay, what is up with that?

Next: Sam and Dean are back! Hunting werewolves? Maybe!